Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1) (1659–1719)
Author of Hagakure
For other authors named Yamamoto Tsunetomo, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
The Author Yamamoto Tsunetomo [1659-1719] was a samurai retainer of the Nabeshima Clan, Lords of Hizen province, who became a Buddhist monk in 1700 after the Shogunal government prohibited the practice of tsuifuku: suicide of a retainer on the death of his lord. The book was dictated to a younger show more samurai during the author's seclusion over a seven year period show less
Works by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Yamamoto Tsunetomo
- Legal name
- 山本 常朝
- Other names
- Yamamoto, Jōchō
- Birthdate
- 1659-06-11
- Date of death
- 1719-11-30
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Japan
- Birthplace
- Saga, Japan
- Relationships
- Nabeshima Mitsushige (master)
- Short biography
- mamoto Tsunetomo (山本常朝), also read Yamamoto Jōchō, was a samurai of the Saga Domain in Hizen Province under his lord Nabeshima Mitsushige. For thirty years Yamamoto devoted his life to the service of his lord and clan. When Nabeshima died in 1700, Yamamoto did not choose to follow his master in death in junshi because the master had expressed a dislike of the practice in his life. Instead, Yamamoto followed his lord's wishes and refrained from junshi. After some disagreements with Nabeshima's successor, Yamamoto renounced the world and retired to a hermitage in the mountains. Late in life (between 1709 and 1716), he narrated many of his thoughts to a fellow samurai, Tsuramoto Tashiro. Many of these aphorisms concerned his lord's father and grandfather Naoshige and the failing ways of the samurai caste. These commentaries were compiled and published in 1716 under the title of Hagakure, a word that can be translated as either "In the Shadow of the Leaves" or "Hidden Leaves".
Members
Discussions
Mishima : The Samurai ethic and modern Japan in Author Theme Reads (January 2013)
Reviews
Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai by Tsunetomo Yamamoto
If you learn one thing from this book, it is that advice is cheap.
A good distillation of a culture is like wine. There is color, there is character, there are bracing effects, there are notes and complexities. Bushido is a culture within a culture, a rich mix. The ideals are kindness and capacity for quick and lethal action. The shadow of death is to be embraced in every moment.
The author was not a samurai. He was a Zen student, Confucian scholar, scribe / retainer to a lord whose father and grandfather were samurai, and finally a mountain-dwelling, married Buddhist priest. Hagakure is a mixing vat of many elements, but its main notes, first and last, are living with death, inhaling it, to the final breath. Sip it to your pleasure and think about how deeply to swallow it in.… (more)
The author was not a samurai. He was a Zen student, Confucian scholar, scribe / retainer to a lord whose father and grandfather were samurai, and finally a mountain-dwelling, married Buddhist priest. Hagakure is a mixing vat of many elements, but its main notes, first and last, are living with death, inhaling it, to the final breath. Sip it to your pleasure and think about how deeply to swallow it in.… (more)
Despite it's history (martial manual for Axis era Japan), the 'Hagakure' in it's originality is a striking text resplendent with one sole emphasis: carry out your duty.
It is not a Sun Tzu type 'Art of War' but rather a nostalgic yearning for times long gone. Profound yet spontaneous, I learnt the essentiality of forbearance from this book.
It is not a Sun Tzu type 'Art of War' but rather a nostalgic yearning for times long gone. Profound yet spontaneous, I learnt the essentiality of forbearance from this book.
from dust jacket
The Way of the Samurai: Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life
'The book that was to provide constant spiritual guidance must form the basis of my morality and it must enable me to approve completely of my youth. It must be a book that could support firmly this loneliness of mine and my anachronistic stance. What is more, it must be a book banned by contemporary society. Hagakure conformed to all these specifications.'-from Mishima's Prologue to Hagakure
Here, for the first time in English, is Mishima's own adaptation and interpretation of Hagakure, the fascinating collection illustrating 'The Way of the Samurai'-the traditional code of life for the Japanese. In his commentary, Mishima stresses the similarities between his own criticicism of postwar Japan and the ciriticism of his eighteenth-century contemporaries. For Mishima what matters is the perfection of the individual, the isolation of the individual, and the impossibility of communication between human beings.
In his introduction to Hagakure, Mishima discusses the great influence that the book has had on his own development as a writer and as an interpreter of modern Japanese society. As seen by Mishima, Hagakure advocates a particular philosophy of love, of daily living, and of action. Mishima's own frenzied career carefully followed this philosophy of action: responsibility for one's acts, partiotism without question , and the opting for suicide as the most honorable course to follow when confronted by unacceptable alternatives. For Mishima, 'the way of the samurai' was lost to Japanese men who, as he wrote, 'have preserverd the chrysanthemum of traditional culture, but not the sword.'
Jacket Illustration: Nakamura Nakazo I as Sadakuro, print by Katsukawa Shunsho, Tokkyo National Museum. From Kabuki by Masakatsu Gunji, publshed by Kodansha International Ltd. Courtesy of the publisher.
Jacket design by Vincent Torre.
Contents
Tanslator's Note
Prologue
Hagakure and I
Raymond Radiguet's Le Bal du Comte d'Orgel and The Collected Works of Akinari Ueda
The One and Ony Book for Me, Hagakure
Hagakure, the Book That Teaches Freedom and Passion
My Testimony
'I Found That the Way of the Samurai Is Death'
The Misfortune and the Happiness of the Man of Action
Hagakure, Womb of My Literary Oeuvre
My Hagakure
Hagakure Is Alive Today
Contemporary Youth Infatuated witht the Cardin Look
The Femnization of the Male
Expense Account Aristocrats
Lionized Baseball Players and Television Stars
The Compromise Climate of Today, When One May Neither Live Beautifully nor Die Horribly
The Ideal Love is Undeclared
Hagakure: Potaent Medcine To Soothe the Suffering Soul
Suppressed, the Death Impulse Must Eventually Explode
Times Have Changed
The Significance of Hagakure for the Present Day
The Forty-Eight Vital Principles of Hagakure
Hagakure and Its Author, Jocho Yamamoto
The Background and Compositon of Hagakure
Jocho and the Tanscriber, Tsuramoto Tashiro
Hagakure: Three Philosophies
How to Read Hagakure
The Japanese Image of Death
Death According to Hagakure and Death for the Kamkaze Suicide Squadrons
There Is No Obligatory Death
Can One Die for a Just Cause?
No Death is in Vain
Appendix: Selected Words of Wisdom from Hagakure… (more)
The Way of the Samurai: Yukio Mishima on Hagakure in Modern Life
'The book that was to provide constant spiritual guidance must form the basis of my morality and it must enable me to approve completely of my youth. It must be a book that could support firmly this loneliness of mine and my anachronistic stance. What is more, it must be a book banned by contemporary society. Hagakure conformed to all these specifications.'-from Mishima's Prologue to Hagakure
Here, for the first time in English, is Mishima's own adaptation and interpretation of Hagakure, the fascinating collection illustrating 'The Way of the Samurai'-the traditional code of life for the Japanese. In his commentary, Mishima stresses the similarities between his own criticicism of postwar Japan and the ciriticism of his eighteenth-century contemporaries. For Mishima what matters is the perfection of the individual, the isolation of the individual, and the impossibility of communication between human beings.
In his introduction to Hagakure, Mishima discusses the great influence that the book has had on his own development as a writer and as an interpreter of modern Japanese society. As seen by Mishima, Hagakure advocates a particular philosophy of love, of daily living, and of action. Mishima's own frenzied career carefully followed this philosophy of action: responsibility for one's acts, partiotism without question , and the opting for suicide as the most honorable course to follow when confronted by unacceptable alternatives. For Mishima, 'the way of the samurai' was lost to Japanese men who, as he wrote, 'have preserverd the chrysanthemum of traditional culture, but not the sword.'
Jacket Illustration: Nakamura Nakazo I as Sadakuro, print by Katsukawa Shunsho, Tokkyo National Museum. From Kabuki by Masakatsu Gunji, publshed by Kodansha International Ltd. Courtesy of the publisher.
Jacket design by Vincent Torre.
Contents
Tanslator's Note
Prologue
Hagakure and I
Raymond Radiguet's Le Bal du Comte d'Orgel and The Collected Works of Akinari Ueda
The One and Ony Book for Me, Hagakure
Hagakure, the Book That Teaches Freedom and Passion
My Testimony
'I Found That the Way of the Samurai Is Death'
The Misfortune and the Happiness of the Man of Action
Hagakure, Womb of My Literary Oeuvre
My Hagakure
Hagakure Is Alive Today
Contemporary Youth Infatuated witht the Cardin Look
The Femnization of the Male
Expense Account Aristocrats
Lionized Baseball Players and Television Stars
The Compromise Climate of Today, When One May Neither Live Beautifully nor Die Horribly
The Ideal Love is Undeclared
Hagakure: Potaent Medcine To Soothe the Suffering Soul
Suppressed, the Death Impulse Must Eventually Explode
Times Have Changed
The Significance of Hagakure for the Present Day
The Forty-Eight Vital Principles of Hagakure
Hagakure and Its Author, Jocho Yamamoto
The Background and Compositon of Hagakure
Jocho and the Tanscriber, Tsuramoto Tashiro
Hagakure: Three Philosophies
How to Read Hagakure
The Japanese Image of Death
Death According to Hagakure and Death for the Kamkaze Suicide Squadrons
There Is No Obligatory Death
Can One Die for a Just Cause?
No Death is in Vain
Appendix: Selected Words of Wisdom from Hagakure… (more)
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